bettyboopfandomcom-20200215-history
Famous Studios
Fleischer Studios was successor to the Fleischer Studios. It was founded in 1942 and was later renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956. Brothers Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer fell out and were no longer on speaking terms, so in 1941 Paramount Pictures took full ownership of the Fleischer Studios and ousted the brothers by having them sign submit letters of resignation, with Paramount cutting off the Fleischer brothers from the studio that they had founded. After Paramount took control over the studio they moved it back to New York and downsized it in early 1943. The top three Fleischer employees were promoted to run the animation studio: business manager Sam Buchwald, storyboard artist Isadore Sparber, and Max Fleischer's son-in-law, head animator Seymour Kneitel. Voice-over artists Mae Questel and Jack Mercer, animators Myron Waldman, Al Eugster, David Tendlar, Tom Johnson, Nicholas Tafuri and storyman Carl Meyer who were relics of the Fleischer era remained with Paramount and the Famous Studios division for most of its existence. Most feature cartoons were just reworked from Fleischer Studios, in other words updated remakes with similar plots but different character lead roles. Today most of the Famous Studios cartoons are owned by AT&T's WarnerMedia through Turner Entertainment (Superman and Popeye the Sailor) and Comcast's NBCUnviersal through DreamWorks Animation (Harvey Comics and Felix the Cat). Cartoons that were released from 1962-1967 are still owned by Paramount Pictures today through Republic Pictures along with the Noveltoons releases before October 1950. Most of the plots in the Famous Studios cartoons were inspired, reworked or remade by previous cartoons. Characters *Popeye *Little Lulu *Little Audrey *Superman *Casper the Friendly Ghost *Herman and Katnip *Honey Halfwitch *Baby Huey *Buzzy the Crow Reworks, Remakes, Reimagined *''Olive Oyl for President'' (Betty Boop for President) *''Little Audrey: Song of the Birds'' (Song of the Birds) *''Barking Dogs Don't Fite'' (Protek the Weakerist) *[https://popeye.wikia.com/wiki/The_Fly%27s_Last_Flight The Fly's Last Flight] (Flies Ain't Human) Trivia *Max and Dave no longer saw eye to eye and became estranged due to personal disputes, which lead to the ultimate demise of the Fleischer Studios. Had both men not had fallen out today the studios still would have probably been running strong. The studio is still active today but is not its own entity and usually pairs up with King Features, who release most of the Betty Boop and Popeye creations, including animated features as seen with the most recent "Boop" releases. Had the brothers not fallen out they could have had a Fleischer World and or Fleischer Land (similar to Walt Disney) had they continued working on the studio that they had founded. Instead most of the famous Fleischer creations have been incorporated and or merged into Universal Studios, most famous being Betty Boop who has appeared at Universal Studios for years and has been portrayed by a vast number of actresses, some who have done a not so good job for example Ginger Pauley an impersonator who copies people's ideas and concepts, and other actresses who have been outstanding like Cindy Wilson, Kayla Strada and Rachel Copeland including people like Sandy Fox who started out as an impersonator, eventually leading her to eventually become one of the several official voices of the character several years down the line, as there is always more than one person hired to do the role. *In 1947, Famous resurrected the old Fleischer Screen Songs series, introducing a new series of musical cartoons featuring a "bouncing ball" sing-along. In 1951, the Screen Songs became Kartune Musical Shorts, which was canceled in 1953 after Max Fleischer claimed ownership of the "bouncing ball" trademark, something he had originated in the 1920s and 1930s, something in which he had also popularized. *Sammy Timberg served as musical director until he was replaced in 1946 by Winston Sharples, who had formerly worked with the Van Beuren Studios. *In 1947, Paramount stopped paying Marge the creator of Little Lulu royalties, so Paramount created the Little Audrey series to replace Little Lulu. *Betty Boop didn't appear in any of the cartoons distributed because she was retired in 1939 thus bringing an end to the Betty Boop cartoons. Although Betty was retired from the cartoon business she still appeared on merchandising and Little Ann Little one of the several original voices of Betty Boop continued to make personal appearances as the character. *Margie Hines can be heard in a few early Famous Studios animated cartoons as Olive Oyl, she was later replaced by Mae Questel. Information given is that Hines quit to go into defense work and then not too long after divorced Jack Mercer. According to a newspaper article, Paramount were looking for two new voices for Popeye and Olive at one point. Questel returned to the role as both Popeye and Olive Oyl while Mercer was away. Links *The Big Cartoon Database See Also *Fleischer Studios Category:Famous Studios Category:Fleischer Studios Category:Paramount Cartoon Studios